PHILADELPHIA – Despite getting tagged with a loss that lowered Andy Pettitte’s record below the break-even mark, Joe Torre and the lefty hurler were satisfied with his outing from a personal standpoint.

“I thought Pettitte was fine,” Torre said following a 6-5 loss the Phillies hung on Pettitte last night at Veterans Stadium. “Two pitches didn’t do what he wanted them to do. They were both home runs, unfortunately, but I was a lot more comfortable watching him pitch today.”

Pettitte, who was coming off a savage beating by the Indians, gave up a two-run homer to Rico Brogna in the first and a solo blast to Scott Rolen in the sixth to fall to 3-4.

“I felt good because I was able to get ground balls,” said Pettitte, who allowed three runs and six hits in six innings.

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Jason Grimsley’s first outing at the Vet since being dealt to the Astros for Curt Schillingin the final days of spring training 1992, reminded people of the reason the Phillies gave up on him: control problems.

In 11/3 innings, Grimsley walked five and was charged with three runs.

“I was sweating a lot and that made it hard to hold onto the ball,” Grimsley said.

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It’s been 13 years since the Red Sox blew Game 6 of the 1986 World Series to the Mets. But the issue will never die with the Boston media. Yesterday’s debate was whether Roger Clemens begged out of the game or John McNamara pulled the Rocket, who was working with an open blister.

“I don’t know how I could have asked out of that game because I was on deck to hit and they sent [Mike] Greenwell up to pinch hit,” said Clemens, who was at first puzzled to be answering a question about the situation. “I had a blister that was bleeding and they kept throwing balls out because of that. But the only thing that the blister kept me from throwing was my slider.”

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Beginning last night, the Yankees face NL teams in six straight away games and that means DH Chili Davis’ productive, switch-hitting bat was grounded against the Phillies and Marlins.

“I have no purpose here anymore,” Davis joked before last night’s loss.

While Torre said Davis wouldn’t start a game against the Phillies – either at first base or in the outfield – because of the artificial turf, Torre used Davis as a pinch-hitter in the seventh and got an RBI groundout from him.

“On this turf, I hate to put him in the outfield because your one-day gain could be a week loss,” Torre said of the 39-year-old Davis, who hasn’t played in the field since 1994.